Multiple Desktop Dock Application Interface

Hello,
When I minus an application to the dock on one desktop, and try to open it from the dock on another desktop, it routes me back to the previous desktop the application was minused on. can this be fixed?

?
The behavior to show the first app in the folder (and, actually, the 2nd and 3rd app behind it) is by design. This is normal and expected behavior.
Whether you (lo, whether many people) actually like or prefer this behavior to the Tiger behavior is a separate matter completely, one which has been debated here both hotly and frequently. No need for another thread on THAT

Similar Messages

Are multiple desktops in 'Lion' totally pointless?

Having multiple desktops for different activities or jobs seems pointless if you can't open a software application from the toolbar when it is already in use on another desktop. i.e. If I need my addressbook open on my personal desktop and also on my work desktop, I can't do it. If I try the desktops flip across screen 'wham! to the desktop where the application was originally opened! No good. The only thing that comes close is to open a new 'file' on the "main" desktop and move that individual file to another desktop whilst in the Mission Control position. That says it all! It's daft... and if you close it down you cant open it again without redoing the whole mission control thing. Am I missing something here apart from my patience?

They way that I perfer to work, there are no cases where I want the OS to switch to another desktop simply because I choose to open an application that happens to already be opened on another desktop. For me, I want the application to open in the current desktop, regardless if it is already open in another desktop. I tend to have multiple applications open on a single desktop in windowed mode - where no single application consumes the entire screen. For me, out-of-sight-out-of mind applies - I need to be able to see what I have to work with.
However, some of my friends at work prefer to work in a full-screen mode, where a singe application takes up the entire screen. They are constantly switching back and forth from one application to the other, typically by pressing CMD+TAB. I guess in this context, having the OS switch from one desktop to another based on where the application is opened would make sense. But, to me that seems like a big waste of a desktop - only showing one application.
So, here is an example of my use-case. I come to work and powerup my Mac. I open Finder and Excel so that I can start working on a report. While I'm working on the report a friend comes over and asks me to help him with his report. In this case, I would prefer to switch to an unused desktop and then proceed to open the applications that I need for this new task, such as Finder and Excel (the same ones I was using for my report but now I need for my friend's report). I already have context in those applications on Desktop1 and I don't want to lose that, hence my desire to use another desktop. So, I go to Desktop2 and click on the Finder icon in the Dock. Instead of it opening a new instance of Finder on Desktop2, I'm jolted over to Desktop1 where Finder was already opened. But I don't want that - I want to keep my place in Finder on Desktop1 and open a new one on Desktop2. Sure, I can hold the CTRL key down while I press on the Finder icon in the Dock and tell it to open a new window. However, instead of it opening a new window in Desktop2, it opens it in Desktop1 while leaving me in Desktop2 and wondering where the new Finder window is. It seems that Safari works correctly in that it will open a new Safari window in Desktop2 if I hold the CTRL key down while I click on its icon in Dock. However, if I forget that, I'm transported over to Desktop1 - which I don't want.
How Firefox is handled is just weird. Lets say that I am in Desktop1 and I have Firefox opened. Then I switch to Desktop2 and now I want Firefox open in Desktop2 too. While in Desktop2 I can hold the CTRL key when clicking on its icon in Dock and tell it to open a new window. Indeed, it will open a new window - but not in Desktop2. Instead, it opens a new window in Desktop1 and I get tranported over to Desktop1. Again, not what I want.
Sure, you can blame the applications for this. But to me, the OS is the coordinator of all the resource on the system, including the applications. So, in my opinion, if it does not work consistently and and if it does not work how I expect then it does not work well.
-Rod

Multiple desktops and mail

The multiple desktops in Lion (replacing Spaces) - how do I keep Mail from coming up in every Desktop? I'd like to keep all of my "communication" (Skype, Mail, Twitter, etc) in one Desktop (2 additional monitors if it matters - I dont think it does) , and have things I am working on in another...but Mail comes up regardless of the Desktop I switch to. I want it to stay in the "communications" desktop. Any ideas? Possible?

Navigate to your "Communication" desktop and Right/Control click on a running application in the Dock and select Options > Assign to This Desktop.

Multiple Desktops

Really like the multiple Desktops. @ 1st thought it was much like Alt-Tab or hovering across Taskbar, basically, another View/Select approach. In 7 (& 8) would run more than one tabbed browser grouping related sites in each. This
does that and on a higher level. Can EASILY be done by 'family' or even if different sign-ins are required. Can be put to good use, keeping things nicely organized & the Desktop, et al, neat, clean & uncluttered.
Just wanted to reiterate what a cool feature I find this to be of Windows 10. IT is so nice how related things can be grouped together making the experience slick, neat, tidy & very organised & uncluttered... not having a bunch of stuff all mixed
up together on one Desktop. Microsoft calls it "Virtual Desktops". For example, I have one w/ Skype, Outlook, Calendar... another w/ all IT stuff.... another w/ Home page & whatever & another w/ sites devoted to a singer/song-write
of particular interest to me. Anyway, you get the idea and certainly can be configured however YOU fancy. You simply open one, put what you want in it, hit the + sign & open another, fill it and so on. I am not sure, yet, as to how many
one can have but, a few, @ any rate.
10 sure is easy to use. Makes such a nice difference not having 'Hot Corners', hidden things or stuff that pops out from edges. Plus, now, w/ 10 and its menu, I don't have to enable the Desktop Toolbar or create a folder on the Taskbar for Applications
and can, still, not have to change screens for anything; just be 100% on the good ole Desktop. All w/ hardly any 'learning curve'! And it sure is speedy! Certainly, non-touch PC Users should not have complaints w/ Windows 10.
Cheers,
Drew
Drew MS Partner / MS Beta Tester / Pres. Computer Issues Pres. Computer Issues www.drewsci.com

Thanks for your response. I think we might be talking about the same Desktop... If you close all your folders and applications and just have the Finder - I'm talking about that Desktop. The one that's called "Desktop" in Places. The one that in System Preferences is called "Desktop and Screensaver" and lets you place a picture of your choosing in the background. I think that's what you mean when you say it's "the background that all your windows and folder sit on." That's the Desktop I mean. (It is called the Desktop, isn't it?) The point isn't having different pictures there - that was hypothetical. At the moment I have a few folders and quicktime files sitting on my Desktop. If I create multiple Spaces - no matter which Space I open, the exact same folders and quicktimes remain on the Desktop. What I was wondering - and suspect isn't possible to do - is being able to create multiple Desktops: one that will have nothing but quicktime files waiting to be opened, one that will have nothing but folders waiting to be opened, etc. I hope this is clearer.
Message was edited by: truffaldin

Use of Multiple Desktops

Hi there,
I was happy to read that there was such a thing as Multiple Desktops on the Mac but then was disappointed to actually see it in action.
I thought that I could place folders and files on different desktops so that it could be easier for me to organise my work. But so far, I can only assign applications to open up in specific desktops which isn't what I was looking for. In fact, I am struggling to see the point of this - the only thing I can see that would be an advantage is that if I have multiple applications running, I could assign for example, Photoshop to D2, Word to D3 and just click on the icon at the bottom to zap straight to that app without having to look for it under all my open apps. This is the most I can see in its usefulness.
BUT... if other users have other ways they use these desktops I would really be interested to know about it - or if any one is aware of a good app that does what I want, i.e. different files on different desktops, it would be great.
Thanks,
Maz

I figured it out. ^1 typed from the number keys is not equivalent to ^1 typed from the numeric keypad. So, when you go into system prefs / keyboard / shortcuts / mission control, it may LOOK the same, but it is not. You simply have to select each of your spaces and change them to ^1, ^2, ^3, etc., using the NUMERIC keypad. It will look the same to you, but it will work properly after that.

Webex and multiple desktops

I was wondering if anyone knows if there is a way to set your Macbook so that when you use Webex and share your desktop you can broadcast any number of the multiple desktops on the Mac. Yesterday I found myself needing to share my desktop on a Webex. Everything that was displayed on my main screen, which is where the webex application was running from, displayed correctly. But when I switched to another desktop on the Mac (to show something in Parallels) everyone said the broadcast went black. Is this just how it is, that webex can only transmit from one desktop? Or do I have something configured incorrectly?
Thanks in advance.

I have the same problem and have not been able to find a solution. Even trying to move the webex to a 2nd montitor connected to the Mac doesn't work. You have to be on the MacBook Pro Laptop Display and Desktop 1 only.
Would love to find an update to this.

Naming Multiple Desktops

Can desktops be named within OSX 10.8.2? I keep multiple desktops open for different subjects/activities and would like to title them instead of them being simply "Desktop #1", "Desktop #2" &c. Can this be done?

Dear Eric ~
Thank you very much for your reply and direction to a previous thread.
After reading through the posts, there is (currently) no way to entitle individual desktops. They either take on the name of the full screen application (i.e. "Mail") or remain as "Desktop #1". One suggestion was to create a background picture for each desktop with a title within the picture, but this is only a half-fix, as the title still won't placed under the desktop picture to view as you scroll across the multiple desktops. The more desktops open (I currently have 12) the smaller icon becomes, which makes it quite useless to have the title within the picture itself (it would be teeny-tiny).

Multiple desktops/different icons?

I am a student and I use my new mbp for lots of school related things, and it would be so easy and much neater looking if I could have all school related links and icons on one desktop, and personal things on another. But I can't figure out how; no matter how I try to move them, both desktops retain the same icons. Surely there is a way to do this? I don't keep programs running if I am not actively using them so the ability to have multiple desktops seems pointless if they are identical. Thanks.
EDIT: doesn't it run down the battery faster to leave things running anyway?

There's no way to do this out of the box. However there are 3rd party programs that provide that functionality. One I know of is called Desktop Tidy.
There's no reason not to leave programs running. A program that isn't doing anything wastes no CPU cycles to speak of and if the OS really needs the memory for something else, the programs running in the background doing nothing will be auto-terminated.
I keep my email, word processor, calendar, database, browser, Reminder, notes, and several other applications running all the time.

SGD VDI vCenter problem accessing multiple desktops simultaneously

Hi,
I am using vCenter as a desktop provider and have created multiple flexible desktop pools in VDI. These desktops pools are then assigned to users in SGD. When accessing these desktops simultaneously through SGD either SGD or VDI gets confused and opens up the wrong desktop. When i open the first desktop from SGD it opens up the correct VM then when i open up another desktop (from a different pool) it opens up the desktop from my previous desktop pool. The name on the Java Window in which the desktop opens up corresponds to the name of the application pool i intend to open however the VM that I login to is from a different pool. I can verify from vCenter that the desktops in the various pools are correct.
Is it not possible to access multiple desktops from different pools simultaneously or is there something that is possibly setup incorrectly? Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.
The versions of SGD/VDI/VCenter are:
SGD Version: 4.5; Build: 20091119205307
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure 3.2.1 (Build 11)
vCenter Server 4.1.0 258902
ESX Server 4.1.0 26047
Thanks.

Multiple Desktop Icons in Sidebar

Here's the setup:
I have my user profile setup on a secondary (non-booting) HD named "Macintosh HD". I hooked up and booted off of an old laptop in FW Target mode, who's HD also was named "Macintosh HD." Well this caused all sorts of probs with my profile going missing upon disconnecting the laptop and rebooting. Opened up terminal and looked in /Volumes, there was listed "Macintosh HD" and "Macintosh HD1," the latter being the one that held my profile. So I created a temp user and logged in with that name, deleted the "Macintosh HD" volume, which was basically empty, renamed the "Macintosh HD1" to "Macintosh HD" and pointed my user to the profile. Logged out and back in as myself and all my preferences and what not were back in place.
Here's the only problem that I haven't been able to resolve. When saving/opening files from an application, in the sidebar, there are multiple desktops, 3 to be exact. One has a generic folder icon, the other two have the desktop icon and both actually point to the true desktop.If I open up a Finder window, there is only one desktop icon, it's just a problem in the Open/Save dialog box. How can I get it back to one desktop in the sidebar?

That works in a normal Finder window, but not in the Save/Open dialog within an application.
However, I deleted the sidebar.plist file within the Preferences folder, restarted and all is back to normal.

Quit all open dock applications at once?

Is there a way to quit all open dock applications at once? I find it time-consuming to go in and quit applications I have used in the dock one at a time.
May be I don't understand why they even stay open after I quit what I was doing with them? Is it possible to set it up that way? I find it is not very Mac-like
to have to go in and quit 5 or 6 items in the dock one at a time. Can you please shed some light on this for me? Thank you for your time and patience.

No, but there is an alternative.
Press command+tab to show the application switcher. While keeping the command key held down, you can press q on a selected application to quit it. The only one you can't quit is the Finder (as this is the application that shows you your Desktop).

Multiple Desktop Windows suddenly not available how do I fix this?

I changed one preference in MIssion Control System Preference - - assigning Dashboard to F5. I then noticed that when I open mission control it shows only Dashboard and 1 application desktop. Also the ways of accessing desktops have been limited to control up arrow and control down arrow. I used to be able to assign control 1, control 2, etc. or control left arrow control right arrow. How do I regain multiple desktops and more ways of accessing them? I'd be most appreciative of any insight or help. Thanks.

Try a restart.
Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.
Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.
Isolating an issue by using another user account
If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.
Safe Mode

Multiple Desktop Icons

Have any of you seen this before?
http://oz-bits.com/dl/odd-desktop.png
See the multiple desktops? Seems to get duplicated when I install things sometimes. When I open a normal finder window after an install, I can see duplicate Desktop, Applications, Documents etc, which I drag off the finder window, but when I do a File -> Open in Word or Text Edit (which is what the pic is of) those multiple desktops show up.
Any ideas? I've trashed the finder prefs file, but not sure where else to go. Thanks much.
Running 10.4.8 on a Dual 1.8GHZ G5 PowerMac with 1.5G RAM
Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Take a look at macjack's advice here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2715273&#2715273
This problem comes up periodically, don't think anyone knows why.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Mac icons not showing in dock application folder

that's what displays after install. the proper icon displays everywhere else. the funny thing is if i move the app out of the applications folder, say to the desktop, then back to the applcations folder the icon proper icon shows.. wierd.
any suggestions?

this is only happening in the dock application folder
icon appears correctly everywhere else at all sizes

Testing Multiple Desktop Environments + Increasing Productivity

Hello,
I've been using Arch Linux with Gnome for some time now and I'm interested in testing out other desktop environments. Particularily Xfce and FluxBox. I'm not really interested in KDE as from past experience I've found it rather bloated. I do however like how you can run Quanta Plus on it (although I've heard this can be done via Gnome with the KDE files etc).
I recently used Ubuntu with Gnome and was impressed with its ability to have completely seperate work spaces (seperate icons,wallpapers, taskbar and processes). I'm interested in methods of doing this and saving/restoring entire workspace sessions. The idea is to have two completely seperate work spaces, one for personal use and the other for work.
Is it possible to have multiple DE's installed at the same time on Arch and ability to switch between them easily and also remove them if necessary?
Basically I'm interested in increasing productivity.
I'm interested in your thoughts on this.
Thanks.

Well if you are developing applications that need testing on multiple Desktop enviroments, then yes installing them would help increasing your productivity.
But if your developed apps are platform independent, installing multiple DEs - in one way - is nothing but bloat and will get in the way because now you will have to rbr different shortcuts/application names for different DEs. That in my opinion leads to decreased productivity. Separate wallpapers on different virtual desktops and apps like those take up lot of memory and are a waste of resources, IMHO
If however, you want to just try out different WMs/DEs to find the right one for you, then yes...as moljac mentioned install them and find out which ones you like.
and yes its easy to install and remove them.

Multiple Desktop Dock Application Interface

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for